Usually in this blog, I’m focusing on reasons you should vote for me. That is the point, after all! But in next week’s primary, I’m unopposed— the place I really need your vote will be in the November election. So this week, I thought I would focus this blog on a fellow candidate I endorse, who does face a contested primary: Jaqueline Kelly.
As you can see at her website, https://www.kellyforjudge.org/, she has a great resume: legal experience in civil cases, criminal cases, and as a city attorney, positions on the Kansas Real Estate Commission and Wichita Ethics Advisory Board, and numerous other volunteer positions— all while raising three children. I was very impressed with her on the several occasions when we met.
One other important element of her background, which she told me about recently, may not be so obvious from her campaign flyers: she is an adopted child of Zimbabwean birth. Having studied the contrast between the systems of government in Zimbabwe and in the US, she especially appreciates being here! This contrast has deeply informed her legal philosophy, and her sense of how special our system is.
Zimbabwe is one of the many nations around the world that promised improved “fairness” and a "just society", if only the government could reduce the inconvenient barriers of personal freedom and give itself complete power— and ended up creating misery for the vast majority. (You can see many more examples of those failures in my Stories of Communism podcast.) It is very important that we have judges in place who understand our country’s fundamental and unique principles of individual freedom and limited government power.
Thus, on August 6th, I’ll be voting for Jacqueline Kelly for judge, and hope you will join me.